United States Ninth Circuit

In a putative class action against a mobile phone provider brought by residents of eight different states, the district court's denial of a motion to compel arbitration is reversed and the case remanded, where: 1) the arbitration clause should not have been struck down because of its class-action waiver provision, since the Federal Arbitration Act preempts a Washington state law invalidating the class-action waiver on substantive unconscionability grounds; 2) the district court on remand had to apply Washington choice-of-law rules to determine whether any of the relevant states allowed voiding a contract on grounds of freestanding procedural unconscionability.

Appellate Information

• Decided 03/16/2012
• Published 03/16/2012

Judges

• Graber

Court

• United States Ninth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Evan M. Tager, F. Paul Bland, Jr.